According to Turner Classic Movies, this movie was completed in 1944 but not released until 1946. Usually a movie being held this long is a bad thing--indicating, most often, that the movie is a dud. However, this great channel indicated that because the previous Hope & Crosby film was so popular, it stayed in theaters longer and the studio decided to wait until 1946 for "The Road to Utopia".
The style of this film is rather different from previous ones in two ways. First, the film begins with an elderly Hope married to an elderly Dorothy Lamour--the one and only time that Bob got her in one of the Road films AND the only one that is, essentially, entirely in flashback. Second, it is narrated by the raconteur, Robert Benchley, who interrupts the film periodically to make comments about it. But, as usual, this film still finds the two men as partners and chiselers. Their fraudulent stage act is discovered and they decide to relocate--heading to the Yukon and the gold rush at the beginning of the 20th century.
Along the way, the pair are mistaken for two famous killers, Sperry and McGuirk, and they take full advantage of it! Everyone in town is so afraid of them that they give them anything they want--and they plan on living like kings. Lamour and her confederates think the pair are Sperry and McGuirk and sets out to weasel the secret of a gold mine from them--a gold mine that they think they boys have but don't.
This film is pretty much what you'd expect, though Hope's one-liners are amazingly flat compared to other Road films. But, on the positive side, I liked how the film broke through the fourth wall repeatedly--making fun of itself, the studio and the roving commentary about the film by Hope and Benchley. As a result, it was a lot of fun--and a bit better than the typical Road film.
The style of this film is rather different from previous ones in two ways. First, the film begins with an elderly Hope married to an elderly Dorothy Lamour--the one and only time that Bob got her in one of the Road films AND the only one that is, essentially, entirely in flashback. Second, it is narrated by the raconteur, Robert Benchley, who interrupts the film periodically to make comments about it. But, as usual, this film still finds the two men as partners and chiselers. Their fraudulent stage act is discovered and they decide to relocate--heading to the Yukon and the gold rush at the beginning of the 20th century.
Along the way, the pair are mistaken for two famous killers, Sperry and McGuirk, and they take full advantage of it! Everyone in town is so afraid of them that they give them anything they want--and they plan on living like kings. Lamour and her confederates think the pair are Sperry and McGuirk and sets out to weasel the secret of a gold mine from them--a gold mine that they think they boys have but don't.
This film is pretty much what you'd expect, though Hope's one-liners are amazingly flat compared to other Road films. But, on the positive side, I liked how the film broke through the fourth wall repeatedly--making fun of itself, the studio and the roving commentary about the film by Hope and Benchley. As a result, it was a lot of fun--and a bit better than the typical Road film.